I use a Pinnacle Dazzle (RCA jacks in, USB out) found in computer supplies stores. VLC media player then used to "hear" the USB input and stream it to file (.wav). It's common to find recorder software that can record from the mic jack, but rare to find one that can record from a USB. My PC's mic jack is noisy, so for me USB is better. With this arrangement, I can use my good turntable. Open two instances of VLC, one to listen in real time, the other to stream to file. Exact Audio Copy can then be used on the wav file to clean-up the start and end points, convert to MP3 / Flac, and/or burn to disc.